History FridgeBrilliance / RWBY

* WBY and Jaune finally getting to the Tree in Episode 9 is the perfect parallel/metaphor to Salem's curse. Salem was made immortal by a higher power in the hopes of understanding the importance of life and death. Once she did, she would be free to join Ozma in the afterlife. But she refused to accept the cycle or admit her mistakes, barring her from the afterlife for eternity. In the Ever After, Ascension or escaping to Remnant is only permitted to those who accept the cycle of renewal and moving onward though life and death. While this is a natural belief for all Afterans, those who don't agree with this philosophy or only focus on escaping find themselves stuck in an UnnaturallyLoopingLocation and denied access. The heroes making it shows they did the one thing that Salem can never do: accept that both life and death are precious gifts, that change is nothing to be afraid of, and not let their mistakes define them.
** Alternatively, it's only a further demonstration of how much Salem is as much of a victim of the Brother Gods as everyone else despite being the BigBad. She was condemned to never be able to move on because of her grief-stricken desire to see her lover again to a spiteful perversion of immortality. Of ''course'' she can't change or move on; her curse prevents her from ever doing so! Same also applies to Ozpin, since his version of Reincarnation is a perversion of ascension; being able to "reincarnate", but forever doomed to be a parasite that destroys his hosts' identity, effectively ensuring he can never be refreshed of his past mistakes and attempt anything new.

* The Volume shows a notable difference between the way Afterans and humans ascend. Any Afteran that wants to change their role in life or dies, whether it is by accident or on purpose, are automatically absorbed by the Tree to begin the process. However, the only way humans have been able to ascend is through manual induction. Ruby drank the spiked tea, Neo willingly jumped into the Tree branches, and the Cat interrupted the Herbalist's process to keep the heroes from ascending. We later learn that when the Cat killed Alyx, she did ''not'' ascend, since the Blacksmith confirms her spirit moved on instead of reincarnating. It would make sense that the Tree would give their denizens a natural ability to ascend if they die. Meanwhile, humans were created by the Brother Gods, who casually abandoned the Ever After and never thought about returning. So why would they bother to design humans with the ability to ascend upon death in a world without the Tree?

—-> '''Ironwood:''' And yet with all your "best intentions", had you ever stopped to wonder if you’d done more harm than good?!

* A bit of fridge tearjerker but seeing how Weiss first reacts to seeing her big sister and how she wanted bunk beds when she was younger, Weiss may have wished to have a normal and loving relationship with her big sis. Instead, Winter is very cold to her little sister and even hits her when she makes a simple mistake. The worst part is that Winter clearly loves Weiss just as much as Weiss loves her, but she can't show it in public.

* Fridge Tearjerker: May pilots her getaway craft from the right-hand seat, which is typically meant for the co-pilot. (Compare her with Neo, who sits on the left in the same make of aircraft.) It's not hard to imagine that May's [[DamnYouMuscleMemory muscle memory]] defaulted to getting in the co-pilot's side, expecting Robyn to be there to take the wheel.

* The credits song about [[HesBack Yang being back in the game]] has Yang claiming to be "Armed and Ready". Of course the PungeonMaster would make a pun about getting a new [[{{Cyborg}} cybernetic arm]] wouldn't she?

* The Volume shows a notable difference between the way Afterans and humans ascend. Any Afteran that wants to change their role in life or dies, whether it is by accident or on purpose, are automatically absorbed by the Tree to begin the process. However, the only way humans have been able to ascend is through manual induction. Ruby drank the spiked tea, Neo willingly jumped into the Tree branches, and the Cat interrupted the Herbalist's process to keep the heroes from ascending. We later learn that when the Cat killed Alyx, she did ''not'' ascend, since the Blacksmith confirms her spirit moved on instead of reincarnating. It would make sense that the Tree would give their denizens a natural ability to ascend if they die. Meanwhile, humans were created by the Brother Gods, who casually abandoned the Ever After and never thought about returning. So why would they bother to design humans with the ability to ascend in a world without the Tree?

* When deciding her name is Somewhat, she is described as 'a friend, a guide, a protector'. Somewhat has become someone who can replace the Cat as a {{Psychopomp}} while having a better foundation and stability, being said protector, guide, and friend, to help others reset, rather than one with a baseline desire of curiosity that can become destructive.

* When deciding her name is Somewhat, she is described as 'a friend, a guide, a protector'. Somewhat has become someone who can replace the Cat as a [[Psychopomp]] while having a better foundation and stability, being said protector, guide, and friend, to help others reset, rather than one with a baseline desire of curiosity that can become destructive.

* Despite Ascending roughly an hour ago, the Paper Pleasers are reborn as the Genial Gems much faster than Herb is reborn, who took a whole day to figure out what he wanted to be. The Pleasers had years to figure out their next forms due to Jaune keeping them alive, which had the added bonus of giving them the time to figure out what material would make them the most resistant to outside elements that they were fragile to as paper. Meanwhile, Herb needed the Curious Cat to remind him of his purpose and realize he needed to Ascend, hence he needed extra time to figure out a small adjustment to help make his work as an herbalist more efficient, and chose butterfly wings and legs for easier transportation.

** Also, think about how the Albains were acting. One of them snapped at her to get back to fighting when she locked up at how much damage they were doing, one of them showed a self-entitled attitude when the other got knocked out by Ghira, Fennec [[UngratefulBastard tried to kill Ghira while he was vulnerable from just saving Ilia's life]], and Corsac [[NeverMyFault angrily blamed Ghira for how badly things turned out]]. She saw that too many in the Fang had become a NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist because they put their rage above the group's original noble goals.

** General James Ironwood was initially a competent commander and huntsman with several allies across Remnant, and wanted to unite the world to stop Salem. When Beacon falls, he withdraws to Atlas to regroup, and is ostensibly planning to rescue Remnant before Atlas is besieged by Salem directly. Once Cinder excites his paranoia, he abandons this plan to just save Atlas and use the Staff of Creation raise the city into the atmosphere. When Penny becomes the new Winter Maiden and his plans keep falling apart, he is slowly driven to desperate insanity that drives all of his allies away, including the staunchly-loyal Winter and Marrow. When Winter is gifted the Winter Maiden powers by a dying Penny, she weakens Ironwood enough to leave him powerless to escape. Atlas, the kingdom that he betrayed everyone for and wanted to raise into the sky, kills him when it crashes into the very city he left to die, while he is all alone... as the people he swore to defend have fled, half because the situation is hopeless, and half to get away from him entirely.

** Ruby was fresh off the heels of the Herbalist's MushroomSamba that confirmed her deep depression about seeing herself as a failure and her ChronicHeroSyndrome. Herb using the Tree's leaves meant the Tree could directly communicate with Ruby and understand what is troubling her, but the Cat interrupting the hallucination meant the Tree could not help Ruby ascend sooner or provide further help. In the Garden Acre marketplace, the Blacksmith sought out Ruby to talk to her one-on-one and kickstart her eventual self evaluation, beginning with the SecretTestOfCharacter about putting her burdens down to become someone else.
** Little is very concerned about seeing the Blacksmith, nervously telling Ruby that they should not be there. All denizens of the Ever After are aware of the cycle of ascension, and that they meet with Blacksmith to choose their new paths in their next life. Little had not found their actual purpose at that point, and had not finished their self-appointed purpose of getting Ruby home. They were not ready to ascend, and were likely afraid that Ruby might leave to ascend before she was ready as well.

* Ruby and Jaune finally reach Meltdown status, but end up being horrifyingly toxic after spending ''years'' of subconsciously bottling up their feelings. You'd think a team of trained soldiers would notice all the signs of an impending mental breakdown - until you realize that Grimm-infested Remnant ''never needed to refine that skill''. Every time a huntress started losing their grip, the stress would literally attract Grimm to their location, meaning other teammates could easily determine how bad the stress gauge was based on how aggroed the Grimm were. And if someone got angry enough to murder something, there'd be an endless slew of monsters to vent (or die to). Everyone on Remnant has exchanged their training in emotional awareness with ''monster-detecting'' awareness. Ruby and Jaune could ''only'' have this level of uninterrupted Meltdown here, on a whole different planet, which doesn't immediately react to their angst with 'karmic' monster attacks.
* At first having Leonardo Lionheart included among the illusions that Neo makes to torture Ruby doesn't seem to make much sense, especially since he betrayed everyone he stood with in a bid to avoid Salem's warth, but it all makes sense once it becomes clear that Neo didn't probably know that. It was said in volume 6 that everyone agreed to keep his betrayal a secret from the population of Mistral, instead they covered it with the lie that he died in battle against the White Fang. By that point Neo was searching Cinder with the purpose to kill her, and after that failed she moved on to do the same to Ruby. They only people that knew the secret were either with Ruby(and thus unlikely to mention it themselves), with Salem (with whom Neo barely spent more than a day during volume 8) or Cinder herself (who barely cared about Lionheart as more than the means to an end). She probably thought that he was another person that was close to Ruby and died.

** The lack of information would also explain why there isn't any mention of facts that would definitely hurt Ruby (ie. The information that Ruby told everyone to keep away from Ironwood back in volume 7) as well as the imperfections in the way her other illusions attack Ruby. The illusion closest to the real deal is Torchwick's due to him and Neo having spent so much time together, but the rest are all based off of what Neo knew about them, and accuracy isn't that crucial anyway when Ruby's in such a vulnerable state of mind.
** This also explains why Clover just stands around doing nothing and has no lines of his own: Neo could possibly have learned of the Ace-Ops initial alliance with team RWBY and Clover's death by Tyrian and Watts' reports to Salem, but she probably had no idea who he actually was, his relationship to Ruby or even his weapon: Neo just figured he was yet another ally who had died due to Ruby's actions, so she threw him in the mix.
** Similarly, while Penny and Pyrrha's illusions fight much like the originals, Ozpin shows none of his fighting style's usual finesse and simply beats his cane down on Ruby like a club. Neo's most likely never seen him fight as she has with Pyrrha during the Tournament or Penny at Amity Tower, but since Ozpin's weapon is a cane like Torchwick's, she bases her illusion of him on how Torchwick would fight (not to mention she wants to make it as painful as possible for Ruby).
* Considering how much of an EldritchLocation the Ever After is with team RWBY walking in circles without a guide and the native Little admitting they have no idea how to return home after walking too far away from. It makes sense that the Brothers made the Curious Cat, who's role is to help Afterans Ascend is so ConstantlyCurious in order to prevent them from Ascending themselves and needing to re-learn themselves on how to navigate throughout the Ever After.

** Not to mention, the Curious Cat has absolutely zero experience actually ''fighting'' anything. They barely contended with the Jabberwalkers for obvious reasons, and the only person they seem to have ever directly killed was a literal child who's only form of defense was a small dagger. Neocat was only able to hold their own against WBY and Jaune due to having Neo's semblance and skills, and once those are gone, they lost the only advantage they had.
** Another note is that the Cat knows how the others fight (Jaune due to knowing him through Alyx, and WBY when they fought the Jabberwalker at the market). Ruby, however, didn't parpicipate in any fights throughout the volume, so the Cat wasn't expecting any of her tricks.

** Related to this, Weiss' comment that even the greatest Huntsmen in history have lost could also apply to the fact that several of their ''allies'' at the time could fit that description, and were just as blindsided as RWBY and JNR by the intervention of Salems faction.

[[/folder]

* 'Midnight' once again shows the peril of being divided, a common theme in ''RWBY''. The Atlesian Air Fleet, having the high ground, should certainly have seen a literal river of black destruction carving a path through the mostly-white tundra. But so long as it only appears to be a threat to Mantle, they ignore it. Salem was no doubt counting on that lack of reaction, already having heard from her subordinates that Ironwood would do nothing to protect the lower city. By the time anyone realized that Atlas itself was the target, it was far too late. Abandoning Mantle only played into Salem's hands.

* Our heroes survive into volume 9. Just an Ass Pull to keep the show going? Not at all! Ambrosius is shown regularly to believe in exact words. He never says 'you die if you fall off'- just a warning not to fall, with no claims of what happens. Seems perfectly fitting for a guy obsessed with the exact wording of what others ask him.

[[/folder]]

** Even the Brother Gods, Light and Dark, fall into the same cycle of being trapped by the past and have a ''very'' corrupted philosophy about moving forward. As revealed in Volume 9, the brothers were beings from the Ever After who happily helped the Tree create a land for all of it's creations and clear away the wilderness. But when they discovered that they could create beings to do their job for them (the Curious Cat and the Jabberwalker), they slowly became corrupted by laziness, greed, and pride; losing sight of their original purposes and fighting over whether creation or destruction should prevail. They chose to abandon their creations and the Ever After to go make new worlds, leaving the denizens of their home with constant fear of dying to the Jabberwalker and the Cat eventually being driven insane because the Gods did not give them a way to ascend if they needed help. The Brothers then proceed to repeat their mistakes with Salem, serving the "antagonist" role in her backstory, which ultimately lead to humanity rising against them. Instead of trying to resolve the issue, they decide to invoke a FinalSolution, [[HistoryRepeats abandoned Remnant]] just like the Ever After, then shouldered Ozma with the responsibility of fixing all of the long term issues ''they'' caused for the world since the beginning, and all of the new ones that would follow with the introduction of the four Relics. The Brothers ultimately started the war between Ozpin and Salem that is dooming Remnant because the duo failed to learn that balance must be achieved naturally and that they were responsible for mending their mistakes. Their idea of "moving on" consists of creating something new before abandoning it because it was not perfect, then leaving the world altogether. This allows whatever they leave behind to wreak havoc on the world and put innocent beings in danger while the Brothers continue the cycle of flawed creation and their FalseDichotomy.

*** Elm and Vine switch sides after Robyn reminds them that a city is not the landmass, but the people instead. The duo then work together with Robyn and Qrow to stop a rogue Harriet from dropping the nuke, and Vine sacrifices himself to save everyone he can.

** Even the Brother Gods, Light and Dark, fall into the same cycle of being trapped by the past and not truly moving forward. As revealed in Volume 9, the brothers were originally beings from the Ever After who [[UsedToBeASweetKid happily helped the Tree create a land for all of it's creations and clear away the wilderness]]. But when they discovered that they could create beings to do their job for them (the Curious Cat and the Jabberwalker), they slowly became corrupted by laziness, greed, and pride; losing sight of their purposes and falling into a FalseDichotomy where they would fight over whether creation or destruction should prevail. They chose to abandon their creations and the Ever After to go make new worlds, leaving the denizens of their home with constant fear of dying to the Jabberwalker and the Cat eventually being driven insane because the Gods did not give them a way to ascend if they needed help. The Brothers then proceed to repeat their mistakes with Salem, serving the "antagonist" role in her backstory, which ultimately lead to humanity rising against them. Instead of trying to resolve the issue, they decide to invoke a FinalSolution, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere abandoned Remnant]] just like the Ever After, then shouldered Ozma with the responsibility of fixing all of the long term issues ''they'' caused for the world since the beginning, and all of the new ones that would follow with the introduction of the four Relics. The Brothers ultimately started the war between Ozpin and Salem that is dooming Remnant because the duo failed to learn that balance must be achieved naturally, that they were responsible for mending their mistakes and that they needed to patiently take care of their creations.

** Similarly, Jaune's sword remains broken from the events of Volume 8, and has rusted away like his armour, symbolising how the trauma of performing assisted suicide for Penny ''broke'' him, and how the years he left it unaddressed have continued to wear at his mental health.

* If you watch the opening after finishing the volume and pay close attention, you'll notice that almost if not all of the scenes that Ruby is in fully reference her physical ''and'' emotional journey throughout the current story.
** When showcasing team RWBY's costume changes from previous volumes, Weiss, Blake, and Yang are all shown moving to the foreground with more confident faces and body language and continue walking forward as they reach their current outfits. Ruby on the other hand, falls into the background with her showing concern and has both stopped and turned around when reaching her current outfit. This represents how while everyone else has overcome their emotional trauma and is "moving forward," Ruby has fallen behind them and is now not only "looking back" on everything they, or more accurately ''she'', has failed to do and is unable to move on because of it.
** The above scene is further emphasized by how the team is shown to be following Alyx. While everyone starts at the same pace, Ruby slows down while everyone else speeds up, representing her feeling that everyone keeps moving on without noticing that something is wrong with her.
** When the team is caught in the Punderstorm, Ruby is shown to be on the the same bridge where Blake and Yang had to confess their feelings for each other, the other person in this case appearing to be Alyx before she transforms into Ruby herself with a cracked grin. This represents that not only the possibility that Ruby and Alyx have some similarities, but also that Ruby isn't being honest with herself. The fact the other Ruby is shown to have [[FreezeFrameBonus what looks to be a broken smile for a split second]] can also be a reference to how Ruby has been [[StepfordSmiler forcing herself to stay positive]] for who knows how long.
** Immediately after the other Ruby is revealed, she drops down and the scene cuts to a sugar cube falling into a teacup held by Neo as she sits in front of a group of shadowy figures. All of this details correlate to chapter 8 of this volume.
** When they finally reach the tree, Ruby is finally in the front the group (which could also represent her technically being the first to reach it) only for everyone to fall off, showing how she's started to feel unworthy of being the leader. Even worse, she's the only one who is shown to still be falling, implying either that the others have either managed to catch themselves without her, or have already hit the ground ''because'' of her, further fueling her mental issues either way (though one is obviously worse).

** Ruby was fresh off the heels of the Herbalist's MushroomSamba that confirmed her deep depression about seeing herself as a failure and her ChronicHeroSyndrome. Herb using the Tree's leaves meant the Tree could directly communicate with Ruby, but the Cat interrupting the hallucination meant the Tree could not help Ruby ascend sooner. In the Garden Acre marketplace, the Blacksmith sought out Ruby to talk to her one-on-one and kickstart her eventual self evaluation, beginning with the SecretTestOfCharacter about putting her burdens down to become someone else.

** Even the Brother Gods, Light and Dark, fall into the same cycle of being trapped by the past and not truly moving forward. As revealed in Volume 9, the brothers were originally beings from the Ever After who [[UsedToBeASweetKid happily helped the Tree create a land for all of it's creations and clear away the wilderness]]. But when they discovered that they could create beings to do their job for them (the Curious Cat and the Jabberwalker), they slowly became corrupted by laziness, greed, and pride; losing sight of their purposes and falling into a FalseDichotomy where they would fight over whether creation or destruction should prevail. They chose to abandon their creations and the Ever After to go make new worlds, leaving the denizens of their home with constant fear of dying to the Jabberwalker and the Cat eventually being driven insane because the Gods did not give them a way to ascend if they needed help. The Brothers then proceed to repeat their mistakes with Salem, serving the "antagonist" role in her backstory, which ultimately lead to humanity rising against them. Instead of trying to resolve the issue, they decide to invoke a FinalSolution, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere abandoned Remnant]] just like the Ever After, then shouldered Ozma with the responsibility of fixing all of the long term issues ''they'' caused for the world since the beginning, and all of the new ones that would follow with the introduction of the four Relics. The Brothers ultimately started the war between Ozpin and Salem that is dooming Remnant because the duo refused to learn that balance must be achieved naturally, that they were responsible for mending their mistakes and that they needed to patiently take care of their creations.

** Ruby was fresh off the heels of the Herbalist's MushroomSamba that confirmed her deep depression about seeing herself as a failure and her ChronicHeroSyndrome. Herb using the Tree's leaves meant the Tree could directly communicate with Ruby, but the Cat interrupting the hallucination meant the Tree could not help Ruby ascend sooner. In the Garden Acre, the Blacksmith sought out Ruby to talk to her one-on-one and kickstart her eventual self evaluation, beginning with the SecretTestOfCharacter about putting her burdens down to become someone else.